Takoban comes a long way in karate
Mbise Takoban started Karate in 2002 at SSG in Maruapula. As a child, he was always fascinated by martial arts films that starred the likes of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Bruce Lee.
He would always find himself imitating them after watching every
film, trying to learn their moves, and slowly, with this, he gravitated towards martial arts.
Within less than a year after joining Karate, he won his first medal at a karate competition held in Otse, where he got a bronze medal.
“In 2005, I won double gold at the Zone 6 held in Botswana and went on to win gold medals at the next Zone 6 championships in different countries in the southern Africa region. In 2008 I became a Junior commonwealth champion at the games held in Scotland at only 14 years of age.”
King Beast, as he is known in the sport circles went on to further his studies in the United Kingdom and had to pause karate for 2 years, from 2012 to 2014. In 2015, he resumed karate competitions, where he got a bronze medal at the British University karate competition.
Some of the recent major achievements were in 2015 and 2022 when he won the English and British National Champion (Gold) twice and United Kingdom Open Champion (Gold), also twice, Central England Open Champion (Gold) three times,
British University Championship (Gold) Once and Silver medalist once and Bronze medalist once and at the Commonwealth Games he was Silver medalist in 2022 at Birmingham.
However, it looks like the 28 year old is still somehow unrecognized but he still wants to compete at the highest level.
“I have had a great run and achieved the most, but I have yet to compete at the highest level, such as the world championships and Olympics where I believe with proper preparation and focus I can compete against the so-called greats.
“One of my main goals in the sport is to pass the baton to the next generation and ensure that they go further than I did, so I opened the Ultimate Karate Center in Gaborone,” he said.
The school however goes beyond just teaching kids martial arts, “We create a system that is meant to empower and develop them mentally and psychologically in such a way that they become very resilient and disciplined across different areas of their lives.”